Ronald McDonald House Charities

Ronald McDonald House Charities

"The mission of Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is to create, find and support programs that directly improve the health and well being of children. Guiding us in our mission are our core values:

• Focusing on the critical needs of children.

• Celebrating the diversity of the programs we offer and the staff, volunteers and donors who make them possible.

• Staying true to our heritage of more than 36 years of responsible stewardship.

• Operating with accountability and transparency."

-Ronald McDonald House Charities

The Ronald McDonald House Charities is a charitable, non-profit group headquartered in Oakbrook, Illinois, USA, whose goal it is to "provide families stability and resources so they can keep their child healthy and happy." True to their mission, the RMHC has opened more than 290 chapters in more than 54 countries and regions, with 309 Ronald McDonald Houses, grants to various non-profit organizations for the needs of children, and even scholarships.

Ronald McDonald House Charities donation boxes can be seen all over McDonald's fast-food restaurants across the United States and other countries, counting up the change until they can help a child somewhere grow up that much more healthily; a truly admirable cause that often does not receive enough support or attention from the first-world.

Don't let me keep you here -- Get over to Ronald McDonald House Charities to help now!

Plant A Billion Trees

Plant A Billion Trees

"One dollar. One tree. One planet."

Plant A Billion Trees is a campaign effort by the Nature Conservancy to plant 1 billion trees by 2015, thus restoring 2,500,000 acres, or 10,100 sq. km, of land in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. By doing so, the Nature Conservancy hopes to slow climate change by restoring the Atlantic Forest, which, according to the Plant A Billion Trees site, "helps regulate the atmosphere and stabilize global climate."

The Plant A Billion Trees campaign pledged to plant 25 million trees as a part of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)'s Billion Tree Campaign. The Plant A Billion Trees campaign also works with such partners as Disneynature, Planet Green, Penguin Books, Payless Shoesource, AT&T, Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and Visa, to maximize efficiency.

Supporters can donate as little as $1, and this will plant one tree; for every dollar donated, one tree is planted. At the time of writing this article, the Plant A Billion Trees campaign has planted almost 7.6 million trees as a result of donations to the program. By doing so, they are saving such species as the Green Lizard, the Prepona Butterfly, the Guapuruvu Tree, and the Scarlet Ibis (among others, found here.)

If you want to help save the environment, the animals, and the world, visit Plant A Billion Trees today.

FreePoverty - Knowing Helps

FreePoverty

"Knowing Helps"

FreePoverty is a click-to-give site that is free and easy to use. It's in the form of a game, much like FreeRice, but it focuses solely on geography (instead of FreeRice's multiple subjects). As one plays the game, and answers correctly, a certain amount of water (depending on how close to correct the answer was) is added to the individual and total score donated. Near the top of their pages, a counter claims (at the time of this article's writing):

"In total we have donated 225,520,538 Cups of Water!"

The idea for the site itself is that a person who plays the games will view the ads placed on that page; the water donated is then paid for by the money earned from the sponsors' ads. The site isn't just a simple game with ads, though. The game itself is very well-made, and the look of the site is wonderful, so one doesn't mind the ads as much.

Why donate water, though? On their Home page, FreePoverty says:

"70% of a human being is made up of water. Water is the second most essential element for survival, after oxygen. Over one billion people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water; hence, causing them to develop deadly diseases. Moreover, without water, the brain is not able to function properly. One cup of water can make difference to someone's day. FreePoverty allows you to donate as many cups of water as you can to save millions of people."

FreePoverty states on its FAQ page that it is in between organizations due to some sort of "unforeseen issues." These issues are not expounded on, and the link they give promising further explanation leads to a 404 page.

Naturally, this does make FreePoverty seem a bit on the shadier side, though the site is much blogged about, and was associated previously with the popular WaterAid. Spending time on the site at your own discretion, as though the site seems trustworthy, it's hard to be sure at the moment. Perhaps when FreePoverty partners up with a reputable organization, we can all rest assured.

Regardless, the geography game on the site is actually quite fun. Go ahead and check it out at FreePoverty.

AIDtoCHILDREN - Helping Children in Need Through Learning

AIDtoCHILDREN

"HELPING CHILDREN IN NEED THROUGH LEARNING"

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UPDATE: As of Sept. 18, 2011, AIDtoCHILDREN is down.
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AIDtoCHILDREN is one more great site to add to the list of easy-to-play browser games that help the world. Have you played FreeRice or Charitii lately? Then you'll definitely recognize AIDtoCHILDREN's style as soon as you jump in, with the question answering to raise funds for the charity (or charities).

The style is recognizable, with a question, and four possible answers. You click the answer you think is right, and if it is, then your skill level progresses and you donate money to the cause. If it's wrong, your skill level goes down, but that's it. It's simple, doesn't take time to load, and is very quick to play. You can exit whenever you wish, but there is no way to save your skill level and amount donated as of yet. Whenever you reload the site, you must start the questions over again.

Answering a question correctly will donate .25 cents to the AIDtoCHILDREN/World Vision cause, which is used to feed children in need. That's $0.0025, meaning 4 correct answers donates a penny. While that may not seem very helpful at all, consider this: you can answer 4 questions in about 10 seconds quite easily. According to the site, it takes just 25 cents to feed a child in need. All it takes to feed a child is roughly 250 seconds, or just over 4 minutes! Four minutes of your day to give another starving child some food, thanks to AIDtoCHILDREN.

The site itself is run by the World Vision charity. According to an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal:

"World Vision says it collected about $1.1 billion — an increase of 16 percent — from U.S. donors during its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008. The group’s total revenue, including grants, product donations and foreign donations, climbed 16 percent to $2.6 billion."

Even in a global recession, especially in the U.S., there was a considerable increase in the amount of donations pouring in to the charity. World Vision looks like it is and will continue to be a successful cause to donate to, and AIDtoCHILDREN lets you do that for free and with ease. So head on over the the site, and help feed children in need: AIDtoCHILDREN.

GamesThatGive - You Play. We Give. No Catch.

GamesThatGive

"You play. We give. No catch."

GamesThatGive is another very intriguing site that utilizes advertisement money to give to causes, much like FreeRice and The Hunger Site. Unlike those two sites, though, GamesThatGive is oriented around causes other than food, such as education, veterans, etc., as well as games, as the title gets across quite well.

How you earn money for the available causes is by playing games. You can bring up such games as Solitaire, Gems, FreeCell, and Bubble Burst, in your browser. You play these games, as sponsored by select advertisers, and the cause gets money for the time you spent playing (and, thus, the time you spent viewing the ads of the sponsors).

GamesThatGive does this by changing the background of your game to one of the select advertisers (such as Dominos Pizza or Propel Fitness Water), which you will view the entire time you play the game. For the amount of time you are playing, you earn the GamesThatGive site advertisement money. They, in turn, send a portion of the money earned to the cause you selected (you may permanently select a cause by selecting one here, if you are signed in).

While this sounds like a much more fun alternative to what some may consider dull trivia or clicking a button once a day, it's also good to note something very important. GamesThatGive only donates '70% of... ad revenue' to the charity you chose, which means they do make a profit instead of donating the full amount earned.

However, the selection of charities is actually quite respectable; there are currently 14 to choose from. Here is a list of available charities to select on the site:

The Wilderness Society
United Way
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
City Year
Breast Cancer Network of Strength
Unicef
ACCESS
Jumpstart
American Heart Association
Mercy Corps
ServiceNation
Ronald McDonald House Charities
Feeding America
DoSomething.org

If you're the kind of person who takes pleasure from doing something you enjoy and helping the world at the same time (and who isn't?), then get on over to start a game and help a cause: GamesThatGive.